1. Field of Disclosure
The disclosure generally relates to the field of receiving and formatting input for online content, in particular to receiving and formatting input for web objects through drag and drop actions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Drag and drop is a data input method that can be used to provide data objects to input elements equipped to received data through drag and drop behavior. For example, input elements like text boxes in a web page are configured to receive textual data through drag and drop behavior in addition to the user typing text in the text box. Accordingly, a user may select text in a document in one window, and drag and drop it into a text box in a web page in a separate window. Drag and drop works in this instance because the text box is natively configured to accept the dropped text as a valid textual input.
On the other hand, various non-input elements like images, lists and text in a web page are not configured to receive input through drag and drop behavior. Accordingly, a user cannot drag and drop data objects on such elements, and the user is limited to providing input related to such web objects through an associated input text box, if there is one available. For example, if a user intends to input a location name to be displayed on a map image, the user must type the location in a text box associated with the map image. The map image itself is not configured to accept an input and a user may not drag and drop text, such as a location name, on the map.
One way of adding drag and drop behavior to the non-input elements is through browser extensions. The browser extensions use the browser's application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide additional functionality for the browser. Accordingly, a browser extension may use one of the browser's API to detect and receive an object dropped on the browser, and implement an action in response to detecting the drop.
However, these extensions provide the added functionality only if the extension is supported by the browser and the user installs the extension. Accordingly, the added functionality is available for a limited set of browsers and available to a limited set of users aware of the available extension and the procedure for installing the extension.